William Bouguereau (1825-1905) was a highly important and influential French academic painter, who taught a long succession of gifted students, primarily at the private Académie Julien in Paris. Bouguereau wanted to become a serious history painter and his efforts paid off in 1850 when he won the much coveted Prix de Rome (meaning that the French government paid him to stay in Rome and study art).

William Bouguereau was a follower of classical art and had no wish for everything like novelty or the avant-garde. His sense of idealism was his guiding principle, regarding the ugly as worthless for representation. A skilled craftsman and master of human anatomy, he utilized a delicate palette and glorious light to sensitively capture nuances of personality and mood, vibrantly bringing the soul and spirit of his subjects to life. Bouguereau has left a large number of works and he is undoubtedly a key figure in 19th century French art. Although his work was widely collected by the English and more especially by the Americans in his lifetime, Bouguereau’s reputation in France was more indistinct—indeed quite low—in his later years. He remained a hard supporter of the academic training system at a time when it was criticized for stifling originality and nurturing mediocrity.

This landmark publication-the first to focus exclusively on Bouguereau and his American pupils-presents sixty-five paintings, drawings, and prints by the master and eleven of his most prominent students, including Eanger Irving Couse, Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau, and Robert Henri. A series of carefully researched essays place the artists' work in historical context and discuss various American responses to Bouguereau's painting and pedagogical techniques, along with the subsequent reception and collecting of their work in the United States.

Midwest Book Review: Fronia Wissman's Bouguereau offers astute and illuminating insights into his art, career, and family life of the French artist Adolphe-William Bouguereau (1825-1905) whose evocative visions of a better, purer time and place earned him a passionate following during his lifetime down through the present. 60 full color reproductions and 15 black & white illustrations perfectly exemplify Bouguereau's prodigious talent in creating works of sensual, emotional, and intellectual appeal.

Dawn Cookson recounts interesting experiences about her life in Florence, whilst studying with Annigonni. The book has several fine reproductions and is well written. Unfortunately the author spends more time recounting "her" experiences and diffuculty finding apartments in Florence than she does talking about Annigoni. I would still highly recommend this book to any one interested in Pietro Annigoni. Just don't expect to learn anything about how the artist painted (other than a recipe for egg tempera paints).

John Everett Millais is still thought of mostly as a Pre-Raphaelite painter, but a much longer portion of his career was devoted to painting the portraits of the Victorian rich and famous. Not only did this prove extraordinarily lucrative-Millais earned what by today's standards would be millions from his portraits-it offered one of the most talented 19th-century painters the chance to fashion powerful and memorable images of the people of his age. This book is the catalog to the 1999 Millais Portrait exhibition debuting at the National Gallery in London and traveling around the United States. It is a much more handsome production than most catalogs.

This book, which accompanies a retrospective exhibition at the Imperial War Museum London in January 2005, reappraises an artist who, at the time of his death in 1931, was probably the best-known painter in Britain. The book reveals the full variety of William Orpen's work from his highly accomplished portraits, his revitalization of the nude and the conversation piece, to his extraordinary allegories and war paintings. It analyzes the series of self-portraits, many mocking his own character with a mixture of humor and bitterness, that are a particular feature of his oeuvre. His experiences as an official war artist in France from 1917 to 1919 made him cynical of politicians. Although he painted brilliant portraits of these very men, and of generals and war heroes, he also produced some bitter allegories of war. The war years form the climax of both the book and the exhibition.

George Frederic Watts (1817-1904) was a titanic figure in nineteenth-century British art. The father of British Symbolism and portrait painter of his age, he forged a controversial career that spanned the reign of Queen Victoria. This book, the first in-depth biography of Watts, sheds new light on the pioneering spirit and breadth of mind of the artist. Drawing on Watts's abundant personal correspondence and diaries and an array of other contemporary documents, the book chronicles the artist's career and personal life, including his friendships with Edward Burne-Jones, Frederic Leighton, William Gladstone, and Alfred Tennyson and his relationships with a series of singular women. The book also examines Watts's wide reforming zeal and political agenda as well as his role and dealings in the Victorian art world.

Duveneck (1848-1919), most famous for his "vigorous brushwork and bravura technique," received high praise as a portrait and landscape painter, etcher, and teacher, yet his reputation suffered greatly after his death. Some prominent American critics considered him little more than an able technician. Also, a number of his dark, opaque paintings proved physically unstable. Neuhaus weighs the artist's strengths and limitations and presents a more balanced view. The volume's format allows for the comfortable arrangement of the text, 53 black-and-white illustrations, 45 handsome color plates, and research aids. Recommended for American art history collections. -Kathleen Eagen Johnson, Sleepy Hollow Restorations, Tarrytown, N.Y. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Self-taught portrait painter Shoumatoff (1888-1980) captured more than 2000 sitters, including FDR, LBJ, Lady Bird Johnson, Rabindranath Tagore, Liberian president William Tubman and generations of Fricks, Mellons and DuPonts. Born in Russia, she moved to New York in 1917 with her husband Leo, then a representative of Alexander Kerensky's provisional government. The prosaic memoir, consisting mostly of Shoumatoff's informal, chatty impressions of the subjects she painted, intersperses reproductions of her art. The focus is on FDR;his second sitting for her, on April 12, 1945, was cut short by a seizure, and he died later that day of a cerebral hemorrhage. Her Unfinished Portrait hangs in the "Little White House" museum in Warm Springs, Ga. Shoumatoff's recollections of FDR's last hours will interest history buffs. -Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Paul Delaroche was one of the most celebrated artists of the first half of the nineteenth century. His major paintings, which include Lady Jane Grey, The Princes in the Tower, Young Christian Martyr, and other works based on historical events, achieved widespread recognition throughout Europe. Although Delaroche's major works continue to be popular when they are exhibited, his name is little known among many museum goers today. This is the first fully illustrated book to be devoted to Delaroche since the publication of a small catalogue raisonne after the artist's death in 1856. This is a unique study that surveys the whole spectrum of visual representation including paintings, drawings, refined reproductive engravings, lithographs, photographs, and popular prints.

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